Cyprian Musoke
3 January 2009
Kampala — BESIDE increasing the capacity of the Jinja oil reserves, the Government is planning to construct a 180 million-litre oil storage terminal in Kampala, to stem the intermittent fuel supply problems.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday Vision on Friday, energy minister Daudi Migereko said work on the new terminal has been delayed by a dispute over the land that is before the courts.
"We are hoping that the courts will expedite the process of resolving this dispute so that construction can start," he said.
Migereko blamed the current fuel shortage in the country on power supply problems at the Mombasa refinery, failure of the oil pipeline and the new axle-load requirement for transporters on the Kenyan roads.
"The main problem has been the bad state of the refinery at Mombasa and the pipeline, which delivers products from the port to Eldoret and Kisumu, where oil companies get products to supply the country," he said.
"Secondly, power outages in Kenya have affected pumping of products through the pipeline and the production process at the refinery in Mombasa."
In case of such problems, he added, the Kenyans first take care of their own demands before they can permit any available quantities for export to the hinterland.
The minister said the construction of the Eldoret-Kampala pipeline, which will accelerate transposition of oil, is ready to start as soon as compensation for the land along the route is completed.
The ministry, he added, is also planning regional storage facilities in Kasese, Gulu, Nakasongola and Mbale.
"Everything we are doing should take into account the fact that we are about to start producing our own oil. And incidentally, that is the sustainable solution to disruption of fuel supply," he explained.
"Now the NRM government strategy is to ensure that we fast-track production of our own oil so that we can be in position in the long term, to totally resolve this problem."
Petrol shortages, which hit the country at the close of the year, continued last week, with most filling stations only having diesel and kerosene. In Kampala, the few stations with fuel had long queues.
Shell continued to sell petrol at sh2,600, while the price at other stations ranged from sh2,800 to sh3,100. It was reported to be between sh3,500 and sh4,000 at some filling station in eastern and parts of western Uganda.
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